US 2016/0355026 describes a large robot system for printing on the hull or on the wings of an aircraft. A robot arm moves the print head, that may be configured as an inkjet printer, in overlapping swaths of varying intensity across the aircraft's complex geometry.
In WO2016/066208 an inkjet printer is described with primary ink tanks that are in fluid communication with nozzles of the movable print head that is situated on a sliding carriage unit. A pump connected to the primary ink tanks is controlled by a controller to supply ink to the print head from the primary ink tanks through an ink delivery circuit. By combining the relative movements of the carriage unit along a transverse scan direction and the feed of the print medium in the medium advance direction, each print head can deposit ink on individual pixel locations on the print medium. A pressure sensor is coupled to the primary ink tanks to determine the fill level of each tank. When the pressure pattern observed by the pressure sensor in a primary ink tank drops below a predetermined threshold, the controller activates a secondary ink tank for supply of additional ink to the primary ink tank for refilling.
The known inkjet printer is not adapted to print on complicated three-dimensional print surfaces. This is especially true for printing at a relatively high resolution and speed (200 dots-per-inch and 250 mm/s) while varying the orientation of the print head. Such conditions require an accurate control of the printing conditions.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an ink jet printer and method of printing that are particularly suitable for accurately and rapidly printing on complex three-dimensional print surfaces.